Elizabeth made no objection;the door was then allowed to be shut,and the carriage drove off.
Words were insufficient for the elevation of his feelings; and he was obliged to walk about the room,while Elizabeth tried to unite civility and truth in a few short sentences.
“I know not, Miss Elizabeth,”said he,“whether Mrs. Collins has yet expressed her sense of your kindness in coming to us;but I am very certain you will not leave the house without receiving her thanks for it.The favor of your company has been much felt, I assure you.We know how little there is to tempt anyone to our humble abode.Our plain manner of living,our small rooms and few domestics,and the little we see of the world,must make Hunsford extremely dull to a young lady like yourself;but I hope you will believe us grateful for the condescension, and that we have done everything in our power to prevent your spending your time unpleasantly.”
It was not without an effort, meanwhile, that she could wait even for Longbourn, before she told her sister of Mr. Darcy's proposals.To know that she had the power of revealing what would so exceedingly astonish Jane,and must,at the same time, so highly gratify whatever of her own vanity she had not yet been able to reason away,was such a temptation to openness as nothing could have conquered but the state of indecision in which she remained as to the extent of what she should communicate;and her fear,if she once entered on the subject,of being hurried into repeating something of Bingley which might only grieve her sister further.